Category Archives: Grants

So You Need To Write a Case Statement: A Helpful Outline to Stating Your Case

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By Hannah Staton, Client and Social Media Associate

A case statement is an important document, but it can be a daunting one to write. In four to six pages, you must be able to clearly communicate your various campaign themes concisely, explain why your nonprofit organization is important, and demonstrate how your nonprofit has been successful in the past.

To help, we have created a a common outline for case statements that can serve as an outline to guide your writing. To customize this outline to fit your needs, consider your audience and purpose and write with both in mind to keep your nonprofit case statement effective and focused.

Before we begin, let’s look at the major components within a case statement and the challenges within each component.

As you can see, a case statement must set up why your nonprofit is important. Then it must make your audience understand how your organization is important through community impact and accomplishments. After your nonprofit’s importance is both communicated and understood, the linked challenge is generating support for your campaign.

To begin, let’s start with introducing your nonprofit.

STEP 1: The Introduction

Like most documents, a case statement needs a strong introduction. But unlike a lot of documents that stick to the cut-and-dry (emphasis on dry!), the point is to be compelling and draw your reader in. Think about your own interest and passion in your nonprofit’s cause and what first kindled those feelings in you, and try to convey those feelings to your reader.

  • Who are we? Describe the make-up of the organization.
  • Do we have a beneficiary/client story that explains our work?

STEP 2: Your Vision

Here you want to talk about your organization’s strengths and how you will use them to move toward your future goals. Show the readers that you know the direction you’re moving in and what value this brings to the community.

  • Where are you going?
  • Why is it important? Why does the community need your vision?

STEP 3: The Campaign

Now that you’ve laid out for vision, describe the actionable steps your organization is going to take to accomplish the vision of the campaign. Tell the reader about the most important steps, and be sure to include what you will spend on each. Explain how each component relates to the overall vision.

  • What is our approach to solving this problem and issue?
  • How exactly will we work to solve this problem going forward?
  • How does this specific campaign solve this problem while carrying out the vision of the organization?

STEP 4: The Donor’s Role

Describe how the participation of potential donors will ensure the organization’s future. If your audience is potential donors, tell them how the organization will be improved by successful campaign. They will want to know what your organization look, feel, and act like after the campaign.

  • How can donor support help the organization? Show a financial model and give numbers.
  • What are some specific examples of donor support making a difference in this campaign or in solving this issue?

STEP 5: Reinforce With Facts +  Enhance With Visuals

You’ve probably been working facts and figures into the document as you go. Take some time to go back and reinforce areas that might need it with supporting statements that contain proof of your organization’s accomplishments. Demonstrate your progress.

At the same time, go back and look for areas that can be reinforced with engaging visuals, whether they be images, graphics, videos, or charts. Visuals provide an emotional connection to content and can seal the entire case statement into an effective package.

Finally, here are some guiding tips to leave you with as you write your case statement:

  1. Be Simple.
  2. Be Definitive.
  3. Use Stories.
  4. Don’t Assume They Know You.
  5. Use Strong Language.

 

 

Creating Shared Value Between Grantmakers and Grantees

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By Achieve Guest Blogger Tony Macklin

I just read the Harvard Business Review article “Creating Shared Value” by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer (also here) and highly recommend it.  (Thanks to Paul Shoemaker at Social Venture Partners for the tip.)

The article makes the case for businesses to create shared value – “policies and practices that enhance the competitiveness of a company while simultaneously advancing the economic and social conditions in the communities in which it participates.” In short, reconnect the success of a company with the success of its community in a way that goes beyond charitable giving and social responsibility.  One of their example corporations, Nestle, has even snagged www.creatingsharedvalue.org for its own work.

The article focuses on how businesses and social enterprises are doing this, and touches on how government agencies and nonprofits need to re-think creating shared value with businesses.  Porter and Kramer describe five characteristics of government regulations that encourage companies to pursue shared value.  I think their list also applies to grantmakers and donors as they pursue more strategic and effective philanthropy.  Here are Porter and Kramer’s recommendations with my quick takes:

1. Set clear and measurable social goals

Clear and measurable goals are watchwords for smart philanthropy. My experience is that most donors and foundations can do well on this point without creating complex theories of change, but most could be better at being clear to the public and potential partners.


2. Set performance standards but don’t prescribe the methods (leave the methods to the innovation within companies)

How refreshing is it when a funder focuses on the ends rather than the means, encouraging grantees and community partners to develop solutions based on their own assets and experiences?  I have found this method of giving builds the most durable working relationships with grantees and can provide the most welcoming invitation for other funders and partners to co-invest.


3. Provide phase-in periods for meeting the new standards, allowing the companies time to develop and introduce new processes and products

Again, how refreshing is it when funders give nonprofits time to learn, adapt, and test new ideas?  There’s no question that there are circumstances when a funder may want and need to incentivize quicker action in a nonprofit or a community.  But I’ve found, as Kramer and Porter suggest, that the new standards and ideas will stick longer when nonprofits can adopt them in a timeframe that is consistent with their business cycles.


4. Establish universal measurement and performance-reporting systems and invest in the infrastructure for collecting reliable data

I’ve seen the power of shared measures across a set of nonprofits or even a group of foundations, and I remain a true believer in the idea.  Coming to agreement on those measures and performance systems isn’t easy, but it pays off in terms of evaluation that’s easier for the nonprofits, their donors, and the public to understand.  And Porter and Kramer are right to say that it takes purposeful and proactive investment to ensure the right data is available often enough for continuous improvement.  The results-based accountability process and the software provider Social Solutions offer a couple easy ways to accomplish this idea, and I’m sure there are many others.


5. Develop efficient and timely reporting of results rather than expensive, detailed compliance processes

Again, a focus on the ends rather than the means.  The best funders and nonprofits use these results as a basis for ongoing conversations about what’s working well and what needs changed – conversations that are more productive than long performance contracts and grant reports.  I’d add the idea of “public reporting of results” by both the funder and the nonprofits, encouraging public dialogue (and even action) around issues that impede better results.

What do you think?  Does this set of ideas around creating shared value translate to your idea of effective and meaningful philanthropy?  Would this type of grantmaking be easier for nonprofits too

What Your Foundation Grant Officer Wants You to Know

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By Nick Parkevich

This morning our Chairman, Ted Grossnickle, and I had the opportunity to sit down and have a really open conversation with a local, but well-known and sizeable foundation.  The experience was refreshing and reminded me of a few things that only made sense to me well after I had left an active development role.

While you may be aware of many of these  foundation realities, the truth is that many organizations fail to maximize the opportunities they present to us.

  1. Your grant officer wants to hear from you – so call them
  2. Foundations have much more than funding to offer; just ask
  3. Funders talk to each other; sharing both the good and bad – and they do make recommendations to other funders
  4. Grant officers are usually not the decision maker, but the strength of your relationship with the grant officer does matter – you can make their job easier by liking you
  5. A “No” is not personal – don’t take it as such
  6. Not all foundations are adverse to funding operations or to providing annual gifts
  7. “No Unsolicited Proposals Accepted” usually means it
  8. Lighting strike gifts do occur – you just never know when, where, or who the benefitting organization will be
  9. Talk to current and past grant recipients to understand the funder’s processes, likes, dislikes, etc…
  10. Grantmakers are human and they have good and bad days.  Don’t base everything on that one bad experience you had with a funder – it might have just been the day they were having

Implementing strategies at your organization to take full advantage of these opportunities will help you develop stronger relationships from the start and on an ongoing basis.  Remember that your grant officer has to represent you to the trustees, so the better they know you, the greater your chance of success.  Finally, keep in mind that foundations aren’t averse to thinking big and strategically with you, they are just charged with balancing your needs/grant request with the resources available at the foundation.

Another RFP for Capacity Building!

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As a consulting firm we recieve our share of RFPs from organizations that have been given a grant from a foundation to do “capacity building”. Clearly funding capacity building is important and is the type of work we do, but the term means different things to different people. Does this mean helping a client write a fundraising plan? Does it mean educating the board about its role in governing and fundraising? Does it mean developing an outreach plan or helping to choose a software vendor or craft the perfect proposal to a corporation? Does it mean conducting a staff audit to ensure a client has the best staffing model for program delivery? Ultimately the answer is all or some of these items…sometimes more! The challenge is in the RFP process. The intention of the process is to help an organization select the best outside source for help and determine the cost of their services. This may not be the result. We offer a few ideas on how to ensure that the consultant chosen matches the work to be done: 1) Ask other nonprofits in  your area who they have worked with and trust and ask those firms for 30 minutes of their time with help defining your scope of work…it may not be a campaign you need, but a an audit of your fundraising ability. 2) Approach the funder with the work already defined and some idea of cost. Demonstrate why you need the type of help you need and emphasize that the process you have undertaken to this point is more efficent. 3) Submit your request for funding. 4) Ask for a proposal for the project you have now defined from the two firms you felt where right for your organization. This will speed the decision making process along beacuse you already have the funding! In the end you are likely to get exactly what you were looking for and the result you want! By the way, to that colleague…thanks Mary Ellen for breakfast.